"Why, uncle, it would be never too late for God, would it? Maxwell said
he would be glad to see Tommy if he came back in the middle of the
night, and God would never turn one of his prodigal sons away. He loves
them so that he sent Jesus to die for them. He would never say He
couldn't have them back again."

Sir Edward said no more, and after another pause the child went on.

"I was asking Mrs. Maxwell the other day if she had some best clothes
for Tommy when he came home, and she took me upstairs into his little
room, and opened a long drawer, and told me to look inside. And there
were his best Sunday coat and waistcoat and trousers, and a silk
handkerchief with lavender in it, and a necktie with yellow and red
stripes, and she told me they had been there for nine years, and she
shakes them out and brushes them every Saturday. He didn't run away in
his best clothes, you know; he left them behind. So they're quite ready
for him. The only thing Mrs. Maxwell hasn't got is the ring."

"The what?" inquired Sir Edward, amused.

"The ring," Milly repeated earnestly. "Maxwell will have to say, '_Put a
ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet_.' Mrs. Maxwell has got a pair
of carpet slippers. I couldn't bear her not having any shoes ready for
him, so we looked about and found a pair that are just too small for
Maxwell, and I put them in the drawer my own self. Mrs. Maxwell says he
won't want a ring, and that she thinks the Bible people dressed
differently, and she said Tommy was a poor man's son: it wasn't as if he
was rich. But I don't know; I don't like to think we have no ring for
him. I suppose you haven't one, uncle, that you would like to give him?"